This proposal is for a studentship to develop key systems for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), to be held jointly by the University of Oxford Dept of Physics, which is one of the leading contributors to the SKA design and specifications, and Selex Galileo, a leading European electronics company. The SKA is a project to build by far the largest radio telescope ever constructed, which will have a transformative effect on many areas of astrophysics and cosmology. The key science goals of the SKA include mapping the development of the structure of the universe by measuring the positions in time and space of a billion galaxies; testing fundamental theories of physics by precision measurements of the most extreme objects in the universe; and studying the formation of earth-like planets. In its final form, it will consist of an array of around 2000 15-m dish antennas, plus around 500 large (~200-m diameter) phased array antennas covering two different frequency bands (totalling over ten square kilomtres of physical collecting area), plus a large central data processing facility, costing a total of around E1.5 billion. The antenna arrays will be concentrated in a remote desert site, with some elements spread over continental distances. The aperture arrays will be the largest digital signal processing networks ever built, with a total input data rate of several petabits per second (greater than the entire current internet) and processing power of many peta-operations per second (comparable to all the personal computers in the UK combined). The period covered by this proposed studentship coincides with the pre-construction phase of the SKA, during which the current plans and outline designs will be converted into functional prototype sub-systems which are capable of being manufactured and installed on an industrial scale. This is therefore the ideal time to have a joint academic-industrial studentship working on a critical aspect of the SKA Phase 1 system design, the low-band aperture array. By using a phased array instead of a large dish antenna, it is possible to image a large number of independent fields of view simultaneously, vastly increasing the survey speed. Once digitized, the signals from each antenna element are broken in to narrow frequency channels, then combined heirarchically into phased beams consisting of weighted sums of all the ~10,000 antenna elements in an array station. Complex gain factors applied to each input element both calibrate out amplitude and phase imbalances in the elements, and generate well-defined beams pointing to different parts of the sky. The project student will study the detailed implementation of the RF analogue electronics, digitization, and initial signal processing of the data streams. The performance requirements for the SKA, in terms of bandwidth, data throughput and volume of output data are far greater than any currently implemented system, and will require innovative design solutions, and a close interaction between science requirements and engineering implementations. Of particular importance is that the designs must be optimized for low manufacturing cost, ease of initial testing, low power consumption, and long service life with little or no maintenance. These are areas where Selex Galileo has vast experience and will bring a major input to the system design. The precise areas of study for the student will be fixed during the initial phase of the project rather than now; the student will not start until October 2011, and the overall system design will have moved on by then, and the scope of work available is also much greater than any one student could cover in a PhD. The supervisors will agree a programme of work which makes best use of the interests and skills of the student and the capabilities of the industrial partner, with the aim of maximising the impact of the project on the SKA design and hence the UK industrial involvement in the SKA construction phase.

The UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UKATC) and the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) have developed a novel adaptive optic technology. The aim of the STFC funded research on which this PIPSS proposal is based is to provide technology which will be used in the mirror systems of the European Extremely Large Telescope. Our technology concerns the deformable mirrors which are used to correct distortions in the light coming into the telescope from space, which in a ground-based telescope is usually caused by the light travelling through the earth's atmosphere. The deformable mirrors can be bent into shape to correct for the atmospheric distortion in the light waves. The bending forces are supplied by actuators, such as the piezoelectric stack actuators discussed in this proposal. The new technology we have developed enables us to have accurate knowledge of the extension of each actuator from a sensor embedded in the actuator itself. It can remove uncertainties caused by hysteresis in the individual actuators, which means that the control voltage cannot move the actuators correctly to the desired position. The sensing technique will be combined with a manufacturing process which enables dense arrays of miniature actuators to produced cost-effectively. The project partners have protected the intellectual property in this technology with a joint patent. Discussions with industry indicated that this technology is likely to have applications outside astronomy in advanced laser systems which also have deformable mirrors built in, for example for shaping a laser beam or removing distortion. Incorporating the technology into these systems will improve the speed and accuracy with which the laser beam can be corrected. During this project we will develop the technology for these laser applications, in close collaboration with the industrial partner.

Ultra wideband (UWB) technology is one of the latest radio-frequency (RF) device technologies to hit the news. The new technology is very promising for future wireless communications and imaging radar applications where high-capacity multiple access and ultra high speed transmission up to several hundreds of Mbps can be implemented. UWB has the potential to make a substantial contribution to the UK economy. However, with the expansion of wireless communications and services, the available RF spectrum is growing scarce. The problem of interference with other services is one which must be solved if the great potential of UWB is to be fully exploited. Filtering technologies are key to controlling the spectrum of RF signals and tackling interference issues. This proposal aims at developing advanced UWB filters for future UWB wireless communications and radar systems.System-on-package (SOP) is a very attractive approach for the development of future UWB RF front-ends, where a high-performance module can be implemented while simultaneously achieving cost and size reduction. To this end, the proposed research will deploy liquid crystal polymer (LCP) that has recently emerged as a new microwave substrate and package material. It has a low loss over a very wide frequency range, near hermetic nature, multilayer capability, and is low cost, and so is ideal for SOP integration. In particular, such a low-cost solution is vital if UWB products are to succeed in the personal consumer market.With this new material a great deal of effort is required on the design and implementation. The proposed research will investigate new design philosophies. Innovative UWB filtering structures that exploit multilayer capability of LCP will be implemented in the light of enabling manufacturing technologies such as laser machining. The reconfigurable UWB filtering sub-system integrating both active and passive components in a single LCP package will be developed.

Our Aim This project aims to develop and design a new satellite mission. This new mission concept will be a spaceborne multi-spectral canopy lidar (called SpeCL, 'speckle') that can measure the vertical profile of a forest and simultaneously determine the spectral characteristics of that profile. Since lidars can provide highly detailed 3D information on the structure of forest they have great potential in reducing the uncertainties in the terrestrial carbon cycle and of supporting the accurate mapping of land cover. The primary scientific objective of the SpeCL mission would be to determine the global distribution of above ground biomass in the world's forests using an appropriate sampling strategy, and to reduce uncertainties in the calculations of carbon stocks and fluxes associated with the terrestrial biosphere. Why is this important? Greenhouse gases associated with forestry (deforestation and degradation) accounts for roughly 17% of global emissions, more than the entire global transport network. A recent report to the Prime Minister (the 2008 Eliasch Review on Financing Global Forests) predicts that without action, the global economic cost of climate change caused by deforestation alone could reach $1 trillion a year by 2100. Most emissions of carbon from land-use change are currently from the tropics as a result of deforestation, which releases the carbon stored in biomass and soils to the atmosphere (as CO2) as organic matter is burned or decays. The regular monitoring and assessment of land cover change is therefore essential to understand the extent and impact of natural and anthropogenic changes Furthermore, analysis of the global carbon cycle shows that the annual emissions of carbon are larger than the annual accumulations of carbon in the atmosphere and oceans, suggesting a terrestrial sink for carbon in addition to that attributable to changes in land use. Remarkably, this as yet unexplained residual sink seems to have increased over the last decades in proportion to total carbon emissions, implying that carbon feedbacks are offsetting each other. This balance is unlikely to persist. The SpeCL mission is an opportunity to constrain both the net emissions of carbon from land-use/land-use change, and the residual terrestrial sink. Any further delay in understanding the carbon budget may have serious long term consequences if we leave too little time to respond. How will we do it? Edinburgh has pioneered the development of the world's first Multi Spectral Canopy Lidar (patent number 0808340.4). Using seedcorn funding from CEOI, we built the first 4-wavelength lidar, demonstrated its use in the lab and modelled the seasonal response. An airborne MSCL (A-MSCL) instrument has been designed and proposed to NERC on July 1st. In anticipation of future mission opportunities (and the long lead time required), there exists an imminent need for determining the feasibility and technical readiness of a spaceborne MSCL. In the first instance we will create a concept for the high cost, but low risk option of a traditional small satellite configuration with a cost ceiling of £100M. We will then aim to develop this concept to an ultra-low cost (<£5M), rapid deployment (within 3 years) micro-satellite platform using off-the-shelf components and where appropriate, 'proved' technologies. To this end we will consider the highly novel, high risk, but very low cost option of using a modular CubeSat platform.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.